Iris

Iris is a Sharp PC-M4000 laptop. I donated her to the Computer Recycling Center in Santa Rosa when we moved back to Oregon in 2017. She was great. But I had too much stuff.

Overview

I used this nice little laptop for about 3 years, then Julie used it for a couple years after that. Then it went into deep storage. Now I am emptying out Deep Storage and found it. My first impulse was to recycle it; what use could a 32-bit Pentium be?

Then I noticed the screen folds out flat! I can just HANG IT ON THE WALL!!! No modifications needed at all.

Well then, I can't be running either Windows XP or Debian 4.0 on it so as we speak, I am putting Linux Mint 18.1 XFCE onto it.

It's amusing to read how much money I spent on tiny little 80 GB drives when the same money would get me 3 TB today. Actually an 80GB IDE drive still costs about as much as a 3TB SATA drive. For around $100 I can get a 64GB SSD with an IDE interface. Or I could just boot off a $5 thumb drive if the old spinning drive ever fails.

Linux Mint 18.1 on Iris

Note that this is a 32-bit computer, it won't boot or run 64-bit programs. I remember 32-bit! So quaint!

I downloaded the ISO image to Laysan then used Brasero to burn a DVD. Unetbootin to a 4GB USB stick failed, I have a hard time with USB sticks and booting old computers.

XP on Iris

Iris came with XP Pro installed. I spent a few evenings playing with it, updating it and installing Firefox and ArcMap and so on.

I actually think that XP is nice. I am bothered that every account created had administrator rights. I still remember Bill Gates saying that he was concerned about Windows security but I knew at the time he was not serious. I fixed it anyway. I created a separate 'root' account with admin rights then removed admin rights from my regular account.

Linux on Iris

I want the system to be dual boot. I still want to be able to test software under XP, and I want to be able to run ArcMap. So I need XP for some things and Linux for others.

I installed Ubuntu 6.06 "Dapper Drake" from CDROM. I have read up on it and heard that the only feature I will lose right now is "suspend to ram"; I can live with this. I suspect it will be out soon anyway.

But before installing, I did a set of backups!

Complete XP Backups

I need to be able to do a bare metal recovery should I lose the hard drive or completely mess up the system during conversion to dual boot. After exploring with Ubuntu booted from the live cd and reading info on the web I determined that I can safely trash the MBR (master boot record) and still recover the system using Grub (the GNU boot loader). To be confident that I can rebuild the system, I need to have

1. a copy of the recovery partition,
2. an XP backup in ASR format,
3. the ASR floppy disk files,
4. and an Ubuntu cd to re-install the Grub MBR.

Recovery partition backup

To do this, I booted from the Ubuntu 6.06 cdrom and used the dd command to create an image of the drive 'recovery' partition. The drive is partitioned like this:

  start  end   ID  filesystem      size 
1     1  7649  07  NTFS            61 GB  Drive C:
2  7650  9091  0f  W95             11 GB  Drive D:
3  9092  9729  de  "Dell Utility"  5 GB   This is the recovery partition
-
5  7650  9091  07  NTFS            Drive D: by another name

sda2 is empty so I am ignoring it; I will delete it when I install Ubuntu.

This is the command I used.

dd if=/dev/sda3| ssh -l root bread 'cat /home/backups/iris_sda3'

I tried 'zipping' the partition but found zip has a 4 GB size limit.

After backup I can use the 'file' command on the server. This is interesting:

# file iris_sda3 
iris_sda3: x86 boot sector, code offset 0x58, OEM-ID "MSWIN4.1",
sectors/cluster 8, Media descriptor 0xf8, heads 255,
hidden sectors 146046915, sectors 10249470 (volumes > 32 MB) ,
FAT (32 bit), sectors/FAT 9994, rootdir cluster 91,
reserved3 0x800000, serial number 0x3d40315d, label: "  PQSERVICE"

I should be able to boot a VMWare machine from it using a grub entry similar to this

unhide (hd0,2)
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
chainloader+1

These commands could be placed in a menu.lst grub file or entered on the command line at boot time. Since I intend to delete the partition now that it is backed up, I won't be keeping the entries in menu.lst.

ASR

The Windows XP Pro "Backup" command includes an option for an ASR (Automated System Recovery) backup. I opted to put the backup onto my Linux server via Samba, which worked fine right up until it asked me to insert a floppy. Iris does not have a flopppy drive. I briefly considered jumping on my bike and seeking out a USB floppy drive but this is silly. I never intend to USE the backup. It is just a safety net. I googled and found this:

http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/ASP/Windows-Server-Hacks-12-77-and-98/2/

"During the ASR backup process, you’re asked to insert a blank, formatted floppy to create a system recovery disk (commonly called an ASR floppy). This floppy is critical to the ASR restore process, so it’s worth digging a little deeper into how it’s used. The ASR backup process saves two files onto your floppy: the ASR state file ( asr.sif), which contains information about the disk signatures and configuration of disk volumes on your machine, and asrpnp.sif, which contains information about different Plug and Play devices on your system. These two files are critical for the recovery of your system, because they connect the underlying hardware configuration with the operating system above it. As we’ll see in a moment, you need to insert this floppy at the beginning of the ASR restore, in order to rebuild the disk subsystem and hardware configuration of your system before restoring the contents of the system and boot volumes.

"What if you have no floppy disk drive on your machine? Fortunately, you can still use ASR to back up your system, but its a bit of a workaround. During the ASR backup process copies of these asr.sif and asrpnp.sif files are also saved in the %SystemRoot%\Repair folder on your server. So, when you receive a prompt at the end of the backup process to insert a floppy, simply ignore the prompt and instead copy asr.sif and asrpnp.sif from Repair to a network share on another server (one that has a floppy disk drive installed). Then, copy the files from the share on that server to a blank floppy you insert into its drive, and you now have a working ASR floppy for your backup. Then, go buy a USB external floppy drive, because you’ll need it if you ever have to rebuild your original server from the backup set you created. In other words, you can perform ASR backup without a floppy, but you cannot perform an ASR restore without one."

I have saved copies of these little files.

I can boot from Ubuntu but would still be more comfortable with an XP boot cd. I refuse to get bent out of shape about this though. I can really live without XP on the laptop if I were to lose it. And I am now relatively confident that I can do a bare metal restore should it be necessary. I would have to first restore the recovery partition from the backup on Bread using Ubuntu, then boot from it. This would allow restoring a bootable copy of XP, which could then be used to run the ASR restore. I'd be back in business then.

The only truly inconvenient part would be having to shell out for a USB floppy drive at that point to load up the asr files. I will deal with that if it ever happens.

Ubuntu install

My first impulse was to delete the 5 GB recovery partition on the first installation of Ubuntu and the funny 11 GB drive D: partition to free up the space. I quelled this impulse and instead let Ubuntu shrink the first partition. If all goes well I will then install a second time and delete the unused recovery and windows partitions.

This is an 80 GB drive, there is lots of space on there anyway. Ubuntu split /dev/sda1 in half. I will have roughly 30 GB for Windows and 30 for Ubuntu.

I will probably end up getting a faster hard drive before I get around to repartitioning. This is an 80 GB 5400 rpm SATA drive and I'd like to put in a Seagate "Momentus" 7200 rpm drive. I am sure I can live with "just" 30 GB until a higher capacity Seagate drive comes along. Right now it is 03-August-2006 and Newegg has the 100 GB model for $175. Too much right now for only a 20GB increase. Though it would be nice to put the original one into 8track.

Upgrade to Seagate Momentus 100 GB drive

December 2006-- I got the 100 GB Seagate Momentus drive for about $120.

I am developing C# software with Visual Studio 2005 and I almost never boot into Ubuntu on this computer, so I decided to go with more space for XP and a smaller Debian Linux partition. I decided the extra speed of a 7200 rpm drive is worth it to me now.

Update: I did not notice any significant improvement with the faster spindle speed.

I am also able to boot R.I.P. from a 256 MB compact flash card in a card reader, which is how I intend to do the backup and restore procedure. I will copy the XP partitions to a server, swap in the new hard drive, and restore them. I will install Debian onto a blank partition along with GRUB and then I will be all set. This leaves the original hard drive as a backup.

Since I have a complete backup, I decided to skip the stupid Windows recovery partition. I want that 5 GB of space to be usable.

Boot under R.I.P.

The laptop BIOS needs to be set to use USB as a floppy/cd drive and to check for a floppy as the first boot option. Once that was done, it would boot from the flash reader.

I have a wire connected so that I get 100 Mbps for doing the file transfers. R.I.P. detected the ethernet interface which is a RealTek 8139. Using 'pump' brings up the network connection just fine. I don't know if R.I.P. can use the WiFi connection or not but don't really care right now.

Existing partitioning set up

C/H/S 9729/255/83

/dev/hdc1 32  NTFS drive C:        backup and restore with ntfsclone
    ST 1 EN 4049      32523561 BLOCKS
/dev/hdc2 12  Win95 ???            some artifact of Ubuntu repartition??
/dev/hdc3  5  DELL utility         Windows recovery -- don't save it
/dev/hdc4 27  Linux                Ubuntu, don't save it
/dev/hdc5 11  Windows 95 drive D:  backup and restore using samba
/dev/hdc6  1  Linux SWAP

The plan

New partitioning plan

/dev/hdc1 32 NTFS drive C:          restore with ntfsclone
/dev/hdc2  8 Linux                  install Debian from scratch
/dev/hdc3  3 SWAP
/dev/hdc4  * the rest, as drive D:  restore with Samba

More hints: http://www.dominok.net/en/it/en.it.clonexp.html

1. dd backup of MBR, while booted from R.I.P. CF card
2. back up drive C: using ntfsclone
3. boot XP and do samba backup of drive D:
4. swap hard drives and boot in R.I.P.
5. create partitions
6. restore of drive C:
7. netinstall Debian on hdc3

Backup

pump    bring up the ethernet interface
dd if=/dev/hdc bs=512 count=1 | ssh 192.168.123.1 dd of=/home/Iris_mbr bs=512
ntfsclone -s -o - /dev/hdc1 | gzip -c | ssh 192.168.123.1 'cat > /home/C.gz'

When I do the Debian netinstall, it should find and make bootable XP when it installs the grub bootloader. This time around I will change the menu.lst to boot XP by default. Debian will be available for network tests and emergencies.

Restore

fdisk /dev/hdc
pump 
ssh 192.168.123.1 'cat /home/C.gz' | gunzip -c | ntfsclone -r -O /dev/hdc1 -

Upgrade to Western Digital 250 GB hard drive

26-Mar-2008

1. first partiton, 195 GB NTFS
2. second, 48 GB Linux EXT3
3. third, 2 GB Linux swap space

I am ready to try Visual Studio 2008 on Iris but her hard drive is full again. I don't think I have booted into Linux more than twice since the 100 GB upgrade, I have been using Iris as a Windows XP and ArcGIS development machine. She is the only computer I have Windows installed on.

This time around I intend to have a big C: drive and a big enough space for Linux that it's actually usable.

Along with the new drive, I got a USB external drive enclosure for $10. I moved the old drive into the enclosure and installed the 250GB drive into Iris. It seems pretty slow at the moment. I wonder if it's running USB 1.1 speeds?

1. I put RIP on a CF card and booted from the USB card reader.
2. I partitioned the new drive with fdisk /dev/hdc
3. I copied the boot sector, "dd if=/dev/sde of=/dev/hdc bs=512 count=1"
4. I used dd to copy the C: partition, "dd if=/dev/sde1 of=/dev/hdc1 bs=1024k"
5. I built an ext3 filesystem on /dev/hdc2 and mounted it.
6. I mounted /dev/sde3 and copied the Debian files to /dev/hdc2.
7. I made a swap filesystem on /dev/hdc3, "mkswap /dev/hdc3"
8. I edited /etc/fstab on /dev/hdc2 to move the partitions around.
9. I resized /dev/hdc1 with "ntfsresize /dev/hdc1"

I shut down, unplugged the USB flash and external drives and rebooted.

I might put Ubuntu on the Linux partition. No big hurry though.

I have never really noticed any problems with battery life with the 7200rpm Seagate Momentus. I am curious to see if there will be a noticeable change with the new 5400rpm WDC Scorpio drive. The old set up had about a 3 hour battery life.

Links

Fedora on the M4000

[Category: System Administration]]